Kazuyo Sejima and Phyllis Lambert Received the 2023 Jane Drew and Ada Louise Huxtable Awards

UK-based publications Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review have named prominent Canadian architect Phyllis Lambert and SANAA co-founder Kazuyo Sejima as this year’s winners of the Jane Drew and Ada Louise Huxtable prizes, respectively, as part of the annual W Awards program, which is now in its 11th year.

As for the awards themselves, the Jane Drew Prize of the W Awards goes to a female architect who has advanced the status of women in architecture through her work and dedication to design quality, while the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize goes to a man or woman beyond the field of architecture who had made a significant impact in the field of architecture and the built environment.

Kazuyo Sejima

Kazuyo Sejima is a well-known Japanese architect who began working for Toyo Ito before establishing her firm, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, in 1987. Together with Ryue Nishizawa, Sejima co-founded SANAA in 1995 in Tokyo.

Kazuyo Sejima’s work in architecture, Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009, the Tsuruoka culture hall, the Louvre-Lens in France, and the Sydney Modern Extension are just a few of SANAA’s many spectacular projects. Architects Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima won the prestigious 2022 Praemium Imperiale last year.

A monetary award was named for Jane Drew, who was an early innovator in the field of architecture. Upon receiving her diploma from the AA in 1929, she immediately set up shop as a sole practitioner following the end of World War II. Without her contributions, there would have been no introduction to the Modern Movement in the UK.

AR Editor Manon Mollard once referred to Kazuyo Sejima as “one of too few female architects to have ascertained themselves on the global scale.

Notable Projects

1) Sydney Modern Extension

2) Louvre Lens

3) Grace Farms

Phyllis Lambert

Phyllis Lambert is an internationally recognized Canadian architect, critic, and conservation campaigner. She is notable for commissioning and working with Mies van der Rohe to design the Seagram Building in the 1950s and founding the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal in 1979. Lambert’s “Observation Is a Constant That Underlies All Approaches,” published this past January, is her most recent book. Her subsequent book is currently being written, “How Does Your City Grow?” for publication later this year.

The Prize honors architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, the first devoted architecture critic at a US newspaper when she worked at the New York Times. Later, in 1970, she received the first Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In contrast to Jane Drew, this award honors those who impact the architectural culture, such as critics, politicians, clients, and planners.

To “always be curious,” as AR’s Deputy Editor Eleanor Beaumont put it, is something Phyllis Lambert strongly advocates.

Notable Projects

1) Saidye Bronfman Centre,1968

2) Seagram Building

3) Canadian Center for Architecture, 1979